| Daily Times - Site Edition | Friday, September 07, 2007 |
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Police told to find French-Pakistani boy in 7 days
LAHORE: Sheikhupura police has expressed its failure to recover a seven-year-old French-Pakistani boy in a habeas corpus case. Justice Syed Hamid Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court has now ordered the police to present the boy in court on September 13.
The court had earlier ordered the police to present the boy in court on September 6 in response to a habeas corpus petition by Peggy Collin, the French mother, who is seeking recovery and custody of the child. The boy had been allegedly abducted by her dual national former husband Muhammad Ishfaque from France in violation of an agreement between them executed before a French court.
Last Friday, a police official on behalf of DPO Sheikhupura appeared before the court and submitted that the boy could not be recovered as the given address was incorrect. Counsel for the petitioner, Asma Jehangir, had made efforts to confirm the address.
The court had observed that this question is of a great importance that whether an agreement struck in France would be executable in Pakistan. The council had said that Pakistan was not a signatory of the Hague Convention but the Pakistani Supreme Court had at times respected the spirit of the convention. She said that the court should grant custody of the child to the mother and also that criminal investigation be initiated against the father.
She said last Friday that they met in London, soon fell in love and moved to Lahore where they married on August 1, 1995. After the marriage they moved to France where their son was born. The couple was divorced in February 2003 and reached an agreement about the custody of the child. The agreement called for joint custody of the child and that any of the parents were to seek consent of the other regarding travel of the boy outside France. The father and the boy disappeared after the mother had left the boy at his father’s place for a weekend. staff report